Blake Plateau

The Blake Plateau lies in the western Atlantic Ocean off the southeastern United States coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The Blake Plateau lies between the North American continental shelf and the deep ocean basin extending about 145 kilometers (90 miles) east and west by 170 kilometers (106 miles) north and south, with a depth of about 500 meters (1,640 feet) inshore sloping to about 1,000 meters (3,281 feet) about 375 kilometers (233 miles) off shore, where the Blake Escarpment drops steeply to the deep basin. The Blake Plateau, associated Blake Ridge and Blake Basin are named for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey steamer George S. Blake, in service 1874-1905, that first used steel cable for oceanographic operations and pioneered deep ocean and Gulf Stream exploration. Survey lines of the steamer Blake first defined the plateau that now bears the ship's name.

In July 1880 Blake under the command of Commander John R. Bartlett, U.S.N., was working with sounding gear designed by Lieutenant Commander Sigsbee in cooperation with Alexander Agassiz collecting biological samples and examining the Gulf Stream running eastward from Cape Romain when, in taking frequent soundings eastward, "depths on this line were unexpectedly small, the axis of the Gulf Stream being crossed before a depth of three hundred fathoms (1,800 feet/549 meters) was found" with a bottom of "hard coral" and little life. This was early indication of the plateau that would in the future carry the ship's name. In 1882 Commander Bartlett described the plateau:

Instead of a deep channel in the course of the Stream as reported by Lieutenants Maffit and Craven, and published in the Coast Survey Reports, our later soundings show an extensive and nearly level plateau, extending from a point to the eastward of the Little Bahama Banks to Cape Hatteras—off Cape Canaveral nearly 200 miles wide, and gradually contracting in width to the northward until reaching Hatteras, where the depth is more than 1000 fathoms within thirty miles of shore. This plateau has a general depth of 400 fathoms, suddenly dropping off on its eastern edge to over 2000 fathoms.

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